One is the Loneliest Number
by jesscaw04
Summary: Jim is tired of dealing with Maggie's games, and decides to call her on it. Maggie is unsure how to deal with a Jim that is different than the one she has come to know and love .
1. Chapter 1

A/N: Jim and Maggie are going to have their relationship dragged about through several seasons just like Josh and Donna from The West Wing. This is how I imagine something finally happening between them.

"James Tiberius Harper, you had better…" Maggie started in on him as she crossed the room towards his desk.

"For the LAST TIME, Maggie, that's NOT my NAME!" Jim shouted at her. So unexpected was this outburst that it derailed her rant.

"Is that- but I mean, is that really the point?" she faltered.

"Probably not," he snapped, "but I find I'm tired of being railroaded into hearing your points. Frankly, I'm tired of a lot of things lately."

"A lot?" she questioned, momentarily forgetting what she meant to say.

"Yes," he ground out. "A lot. Although mostly just this," here he gestured wildly back and forth between the two of them, "BULLSHIT."

She took an involuntary step back as though his words had physically assaulted her.

"Bullshit?" she whispered. She realized she was only parroting his words back to him, but she felt incapable of formulating intelligent responses. She was utterly confused by his reaction. He'd never cursed at her before. He'd never really fought back, even. This was not going according to tradition. He wasn't just taking what she threw at him. She was unsure how to proceed.

He continued on as though he hadn't even heard her weak interjection. "Another thing I would really appreciate is if we could have at least ONE of these 'discussions' not in the middle of the newsroom. Do you think we could maybe try that? Sniping at each other in relative privacy for once?" The sarcasm was apparent in his tone, and she thought how much worse it sounded when it was meant in seemingly real bitterness rather than friendly banter.

Without waiting for her to once again repeat what he'd just said, he grabbed her arm in a decidedly non-gentle manner and dragged her out of the newsroom and down the hall towards the elevator. He punched the button repeatedly and started pacing back and forth in front of her after releasing the bruising grip he'd had on her arm. She unconsciously began to rub her arm as he started speaking, but neither of them noticed.

"Ok Maggie, listen. I'm tired of you jerking me around." He rolled right over her attempt to interrupt him and ignored the outrage he saw on her face. "Yes, jerking. We're friends, we're more than friends, we're mad at each other, you're mad at me, you're mad at Don, Lisa's mad at me because you're mad at her, I just can't TAKE it anymore. This isn't normal. This isn't 'friendly.' I can't THINK when you're around. Or, maybe I think better. I don't really know. It's starting to affect how I do my job. And how you do your job. And how everyone around us does their jobs.

Don is around all the time, watching us. Don't you see that? Maybe you don't, because every time I see you, you're looking at me. But every time I see Don, he's looking at you. And then he looks at me, and frankly it's giving me a weird complex. Guys shouldn't look at other guys that much.

Did you know there's a betting pool going about our 'relationship,' or whatever the hell we're calling it this week? Whoever gets closest to the day we figure all this stuff out -again he gestured between the two of them- wins. If they correctly guess whether it turns out good or bad, they get a bonus. People don't know if it's going to turn out good or bad, Maggie. That doesn't worry you?"

He paused a beat, running his fingers through his already tousled hair, and she saw her opportunity to speak. "No," she began, "I didn't know there was a betting pool. I find that disgusting, and frankly I can't believe no one's told me about it yet."

"Well, they figured that would be counterproductive. Now that you know about it, though, if you want to go in halvsies with me, we kind of have the inside track, don't you think? Good or bad, how 'bout we put down a bet for, say, today. Is that working for you? I don't have much cash on me, but we're gonna win a lot no matter what. No one else's bet is even in the realm of today-"

"Right, no, don't think I'm going to be placing a bet today, Jim."

"Oh, well, ok. Do you mind if I go find Neal, then? I think he's running it and I wouldn't want to miss my chance-"

"JAMES TY-" At his instantaneous look of fury, she quickly cut herself off. "JIM. Get your shit together. We are doing this, and we're doing it now."

A chirping text notification interrupted her and both she and Jim glanced toward the sound, only to find that they were the focus of an entire elevator full of intently staring people.

"SHUT THE DOOR," Maggie and Jim yelled in unison. As a hand shot out to punch the button, a voice from the back asked, "So do you think it's too late to change my day? Does anyone know where Sampat is?" A smack was heard as the doors slid closed. Maggie was already in motion.

In a reversal of the actions of just a few minutes ago, Maggie grabbed Jim's arm and started herding him towards the stairwell. She figured they might actually be safe from an audience in there. They were on the 25th floor, after all. Only insane people took the stairs from there. As she pushed the door open and started to shove Jim through it, however, she realized that she was not the only person that had had that idea today.

"Come on, REALLY?" Maggie exploded. "Well," she then said to Jim, "I found Neal for you."

Startled by the noise of the door banging open, Neal instinctively raised his head from Kaylee's and turned around.

"You know, some of us wanted to use the stairwell for what it was INTENDED for, not just making out with our girlfriends!" Maggie hissed at Neal while Kaylee wiped her mouth and looked smug.

"Why didn't you take the elevator like normal people?" Neal countered while also wiping his lips.

"Oh, we don't want to actually 'use the stairwell for what it was intended for," Jim chimed in, making air quotations with his hands. "Maggie wants to yell at me but I insisted that she find a more private place to do it than the newsroom. But since I just happened to run into you, I wanted to make a bet. I have some money and I'm trying to convince Maggie to go in with me-"

"NEAL! Get out! Take your girlfriend to the control room or out onto the balcony. Better yet, stop making out with her during work hours. And," she said, glaring at him, "shut the pool down, or all those things you said about Sloan while you were trolling the economists' website will sound like compliments compared to the rumors I will spread about you. I have three older brothers, and I know how to fight dirty."

Neal, looking slightly scared of Maggie's mean face, grabbed Kaylee's hand and guided her out through the stairwell door.

"That's right, you better run," she called out the door after them.

"Should I also run?" Jim asked, looking a bit uneasy.

"NO," she shouted exasperatedly, and then repeated in a somewhat calmer tone, "no. You stay here. We need to talk. About this jerking you around thing…" but then she trailed off as if she'd run out of steam, finally. "I honestly didn't think that that was what I was doing," she continued after a long pause. "I have a boyfriend."

At Jim's raised eyebrow, she corrected herself. "Had a boyfriend, I mean." She experienced the sharp, stabbing pain in her heart that occurred every time she allowed herself to remember Don's confession. She thought about all the other women he'd dated besides her during the course of their long and admittedly tumultuous relationship. But now was not the time to rehash that. She forged on.

"And you, you HAVE Lisa. Your relationship is still a thing. I had him and you have her and this,"- here she copied his hand motions and waved her arms between them- "this shouldn't be a thing. IS not a thing. I can't jerk you around because there's no context for us to do any jerking regarding each other," she finished, suddenly refusing to meet his eyes.

Jim reached out and tugged her chin upwards, asking her without words to look at him. "But here's the thing, Maggie…"


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: Thanks for the reviews and follows, guys! I really appreciate the feedback. Hope you enjoy Jim and Maggie's latest exploits. I hate to call this story AU now, thanks to the series finale, but it might be. Unless this is set sometime in the hiatus between seasons, after Maggie and Don inevitably break up AGAIN. I swear if they come back married in season 2, I'll break things. Also, I neglected to add a DISCLAIMER in the 1st chapter, but clearly, The Newsroom is not mine, although I am in love with Aaron Sorkin and would like to own half his things.

Jim reached out and tugged her chin upwards, asking her without words to look at him. "But here's the thing, Maggie," he said. "My relationship with Lisa has been one long, drawn-out mistake. Actually, it's been two back-to-back mistakes. I haven't fixed them because you've never given me hope that you're ever going to be available when I'm single. You are my first choice, Maggie. You've been my first choice since the day I met you. You're my rosebuds, and by God I'm trying to gather you!"

At Maggie's confused expression, Jim realized that that reference was lost on her. "It's a poem... Mac and I talked about it one day... it's by Robert Herrick... you know what, not important. FOCUS!" he whisper shouted to himself as he slapped his forehead.

He turned slightly away from her and started muttering to himself. Maggie heard something that vaguely sounded like "get your head in the game, Harper," but she couldn't be sure.

He turned back to her and she nodded dazedly. Before she started questioning him about rosebuds, he moved on. "The point is that if I could have you, grass would be greener, life would be sweeter, and all those other cliches would be real. You are my first choice."

Maggie still looked as if she were trying to process all of this, so Jim kept going. She vaguely wondered if anyone had ever told him that he talked too much and just how adorable a quality it was. She actually missed the beginning of what he said next because she was so focused on his lips and her own thoughts as he was talking.

"...you remind me a lot of Mac, actually," Jim was saying. Now this was surprising and flattering in the extreme. Maggie admired Mac to the point of embarrassing hero worship. The woman was a force of nature. She was the only female, that Maggie knew of, who could control Will. That right there was impressive, but she was one of the most empathetic women that Maggie had ever encountered, besides being smart and funny to boot. She lived her life with purpose, and Maggie aspired to accomplish that same goal.

Tired of missing the conversation she was supposed to be having with Jim, she determined to focus (but she was able to come to this conclusion without shouting it to herself and delivering a slap to her forehead). "How...?" Well, at least she'd said something. It wasn't the most intelligent of rejoinders, but it was better than stunned silence.

"Well, according to Mac, I have a crush on the both of you. I don't, really!" he hurried to say, "but she pointed out that the two of you share many qualities. What I've noticed about you right from the start, Maggie, is that you're smart, you're funny, and..." he paused thoughtfully here. Not like he was unsure what to say next, but like he wanted to get it exactly right. That was another thing she appreciated about him. He put thought into what he wanted to say.

"FOCUS!" She whisper shouted to herself.

"Brave," he finished his sentence, and her attention snapped back to him. "You try to hide it, but I see it. The night that you were having the panic attack, I could tell you were determined to get though it on your own. You wanted to deal with it yourself, even though anyone would have been happy to help."

"Not everyone," she muttered. Don sure hadn't seemed to care too much about her panic attacks in the past. Certainly not like Jim had. It was one of the many things she felt that Jim had handled better than her on again, off again boyfriend.

"I just, I think that you're on your way to being an incredible woman, and I'd like to be standing next to you while you find your way to who you want to be," he finished.

All Maggie could do was look at Jim, sure that her heart was in her eyes. No one had ever made a speech like that to her. This is what she wanted. Not just the steps that every relationship went through, like dating, moving in, getting married and so on. She'd tried moving in with Don. It hadn't worked out so well. She wanted the words. She was a newswoman, and words were life to her. Jim had the words and the grand gestures. He was the whole package, and she was so lucky to have him...

But, she didn't have him. Her euphoric sapfest came to an abrupt halt. She didn't have him. Lisa had him. Lisa, her best friend, whom she had not only encouraged to date Jim, TWICE, but also practically thrown at him.

Jim was grinning goofily at her, and she realized that he had grasped her hand at some point, but his face dropped along with his hold on her at her subsequent question.

"What about Lisa?"


End file.
